Cute and Quick Projects for the Holidays aka 12 Days of Craftiness

Ready for a trip around Blog Land? I have found some cute projects and wanted to share them. I won't be posting them all at once though. Hopefully I will be able to update this post with a new link every day for the next week or so.

1) Melissa from The Polka Dot Chair posted a tutorial for an AWESOME tote bag ornament!!

2) Lots and Lots and Lots of REALLY cool projects over at Whip Up's list of tutorials!
Knitting, crochet, sewing, and lots of other crafty goodness.


3) Cute SCRAPPY flower at Pink Suede Shoes! This would be cute done in red and green fabrics or maybe all white for a Christmasy theme.

4) For a new baby, why not make some of these cute baby blocks featured over at Moda Bake Shop? They use a couple of charm packs, so you could use some fun bright fabrics like Sugar Pop from the shop.

5) DuoFiberworks eBook Handwork for the Holidays - I'm in LOVE with the go fish game handmade!! Also, love the bean bag animals. OK, it's not a free pattern, but this could totally be worth it because you could probably make most of these items from your stash and only have spent the price of the eBook!

6) Here are some free patterns and tutorials from Duo Fiberworks too.

7) A couple of FREE patterns to make some cute mini quilts from Kathreen Ricketson's book Mini Quilts (also a great gift idea for a fellow quilter) plus another FREE quilt pattern from the book.
















8) Projects for gifts for guys? I always think guys are the HARDEST people to make gifts for but I found a great list of different ways to make iPad and Kindle covers and most are from UPCYCLED sweaters and stuff. COOL! You know, I bought a wool sweater vest thing from Goodwill not too long ago and had no idea what do to with it, except I knew I was going to felt it for something. Now I have some great project ideas.

By the way, Tipnut is one of THE best resources for TONS and TONS of ideas for EVERYTHING under the sun! I mean, I get the daily e-mail with TONS of ideas, including 25 recipes for Turkey leftovers and 45 different pumpkin spice bread recipes (I swear they are reading my mind) but also TONS of different sewing and crafting projects. I mean, TONS (did I mention they have TONS?) And usually it's all in an e-mail I get every day. I think EVERYONE should sign up for that e-mail because if you hate it, you can just delete or unsubscribe but they do all the work for you to find so many different projects and tutorials around the web and then compile them on a webpage and then send you the link in one e-mail! (And NO I am not getting any sort of compensation for this, I just LOVE Tipnut!)

More to come...

And if YOU find any cute tutorials around blogland, please feel free to share them in the comments!

Happy Sitches
Anna

Merry SITSmas to All and to All a Good Time

I hope everyone has TONS of fun hopping around blogland today! I wish I could join you but as it turns out, I have to work at my day job, bummer! Maybe I can catch up a little after work while I'm waiting for our cable guy to come and replace our box. A few weeks ago, the SITS girls informed me that Crafty Girls Workshop would be featured on SITSmas so I am so thrilled! I hope that we get a lot of fun comments and new followers and visitors. I believe that also means we're participating in the Giveaway that they mentioned, but I am not completely sure of the details. Just know that it's something very cool from our shop. I hope everyone is having prettier weather than we're having here in San Antonio, Texas. It's chilly, drizzly, and altogether just depressing. It's one day I'm actually happy I don't have a window in my office! So, I hope that if you stop by and leave me some comment love that you'll answer one little question for me:

Are you making gifts for anyone this year?

This could be baking, or putting together a mix for cookies in a jar (I love that one), or letting your kids decorate the wrapping paper, I want to know what you are doing! If you aren't making gifts, have you found some great deals somewhere that you can share? (I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet.) Thanks so much for stopping by and Merry SITSmas!

Oh, and if you have NO IDEA what the heck SITSmas is and just happened to come by today by accident, I recommend you check out the SITS blog. They are a great group of women who will always make you feel good with their blog recommendations or their comments.

Happy Stitches to You,
Anna

P.S. I forgot to mention that if you DO decide to purchase something from our shop anytime this month, please add Merry SITSmas to the message to seller and we'll add a little something extra in with your purcahse. Thanks!!

In the Holiday Spirit

Yeah, I know it's sort of late to be thinking about making Christmas-y decorations but I can't help it. Lots of people around blogland seem to be finding the time somewhere to make such cute things! For example, Jodi, over at Pleasant Home has created some of the CUTEST table runners ever and with just simple strips! She said I could borrow her picture to show off her work. She takes such awesome pictures too! See!?

She gives pretty great instructions on her post about this as well, if you want to whip one up before all the great holiday parties you're planning to host! (I'm not going to host any until I get some new flooring and my downstairs painted, but that's another story.) Now, how does this relate at all to my shop you might ask? Heehee, I have to relate it back, well, wouldn't this tablerunner look SOOO awesome done up in some CUTE retro fabrics like we have in our shop? How easy it would be to cut them into 2 1/2" x 11" strips and one short stack would get you A LOT of strips! Here are some of my suggestions for cute fabrics for this from the shop.

Riley Blake Retro Christmas Short Stack (1 of 3 choices)

or

for a more traditional look

Studio e Christmas Short Stack

Remember you should be able to get several table runners from each Short Stack and if you were to add in a little bit of our solid white, Moda Bella Snow it would be a perfectly quick project. I think the best thing about those Riley Blake FQs is that because they aren't so traditional and they have snowmen, you can keep the tablerunner out way into January! Fun! Thanks Jodi for this inspiration and thanks for letting me borrow your idea. This is what I call collaboration! Oh and don't forget, if you want a variety, we do have the Create Your Own Short Stack option too! Then you can get 3 of the Riley Blake and 3 of the Studio e or add in some from Anna Griffin or even some of the red, white, and blue stars for a jump on a July 4th runner. (The combinations are endless you know.)

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

Take a Break for Some Java and a Quick Project!

I had a great time over the loooong weekend, just hanging out at Regina's house on Saturday. We sewed some items in preparation for a spring craft show, and also got to work on some REALLY fast embroidery projects. This is my particular favorite, look at the flour sack towel Regina embroidered:

Is that cute or what!? As it turns out we have a kit for this exact pattern, and the iron transfers include 9 different patterns in ONE set! The kit also has 3 premium, 100% cotton tea towels that have a blue band, but if you see a different color in our shop, you can tell us and we'll switch out the color of the towels. We also have plain flour sack towels that look totally adorable when you do a super easy blanket stitch along the bottom as Regina did on hers. Here is what the patterns look like. Click on the picture to go directly to our shop to see the entire listing.

I always feel like I am pressed for time and was sort of getting sad because I didn't know if I would have enough time to make gifts for my family this year. But I finished one of these designs in an evening and with this kit, there are three towels which is perfect for a set for a family member or, if I were to make up all three, I could pair them with some cute kitchen utensils for a great, easy, practical and home made gift! How about adding in a jar of hot cocoa mix? There are plenty of awesome instructions around the Internet for those. Wouldn't that be adorable with these coffee themed towels? We also have some holiday towel patterns in a kit that even includes the thread. Now how can anyone go wrong with that!? Well, time to get going, I have to get to work on my second towel for this week!

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

P.S. The SHORT STACK sale has been extended so check out the 10% discount on all short stack bundles in our shop!

One Pattern, Endless Possibilities

Isn't this pattern adorable? It's sooo cute and versatile and reusable in so many ways! You can use it to make little onesie dresses for your daughter, grandaughter, neighbor's children, best friend's baby, the list goes on and on. It only takes a standard onesie and 1/2 yard of fabric! Look at all the cute options we have right now for sale that are already cut into 1/2 yard pieces!

Here is a cute bundle of Snippets by American Jane.

It's getting harder to find this fabric. But it happens that we have a 1/2 yard bundle!

Check out this lovely group of holiday fabrics from Sandy Gervais!

All 1/2 yard cuts, there are 11 fabrics in this bundle and they are already prewashed for you!

These are just a sample of the many fabrics we have that would be super adorable made into little onesie dresses for your (or your friend's) baby. I think I'll try and make up a few since I have a friend who is having their first baby girl in October. Her name is going to be Lily and we happen to have some adorable fabric called Lily Pond that would be perfect! I've also started adding the patterns from our Etsy shop to our New shop, so that you can purchase yardage for a pattern at the same time you buy the pattern and the precut fabric, it's your one stop shopping destination! I hope you'll stop by and check it out! More gift suggestions tomorrow!

Happy Stitches,

Anna